IRONMAN: Is It Safe For Kids?

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IRONMAN: Is It Safe For Kids?

First of all, I must say I think the current movie version of "Ironman" is one of the better screen adaptations of a comic book franchise. I cannot think of a better actor to play Tony Stark than Robert Downey, Jr. Terence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges all give solid performances and Jon Favreau's direction is top-notch. The story is a little heavy on showing how Tony Stark becomes Iron Man, leaving less time for acts of superhero-ness. But all-in-all, I was highly entertained by this flick and I think anyone worth their geek card must run, not walk, to see this movie.

But is "Ironman" safe for the Geeklets?

Adult Situations: Tony Stark loves his women. There is one scene where Tony climbs in bed with a female reporter, but they roll off the bed and out of frame before anything more suggestive is shown. Another scene has the flight attendants on Tony's private airplane dancing. Although there are moving disco lights and apparently a stripper pole in view, nothing is terribly suggestive.

Nudity: None.

Alcohol Use: There are quite a few scenes where alcohol is shown. In the airplane scene mentioned above, Terence Howard's character, Jim Rhodes, appears to be slightly inebriated. No one is shown falling-down drunk.

Violence: Yes, please. This is definitely an action movie. Most of the violence is of the lots-of-things-go-boom variety. There is also quite a bit of gun violence, but nothing is close-up or gratuitous. A torture scene early in the film shows Tony's head being repeatedly immersed in water by his captors to get him to cooperate. Young viewers may find this disturbing.

Language: All of the expletives used can be heard on prime time network television. There are a couple of SOB's, a few "damns" and one person is compared to a part of the male anatomy which rhymes with "sick."

Other Graphic Stuff: Pepper Potts (Paltrow) assists Tony in changing out his chest mounted power supply. She has to reach into the port in his chest to disconnect the old one. There a bit of an "eww" factor but no blood is shown.

My 10 and 12 year old kids had no problem with this feature. I would say, it is probably safe to be shown to most kids who are age 8 or above. On a my highly suggestive scale, I would place "Ironman" somewhere in between "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Star Wars: Episode III" as far as questionable content is concerned.